Gimbal Motors and the APM

Posted by Clifford Sumner on September 18, 2015 at 7:02am

Hey there!

So, I've been trying to get my Cx-20 up in the air (reliably) for some time now. 

Basically it is no longer a CX-20 aside from the frame, ESC's and the power board.

I purchased this gimbal from banggood and have been fiddling with it for a bit now..it's works ok but today started acting erratically for no apparent reason. I can probably get it to work, but when I was researching I learned that my APM 2.8 can control gimbal motors! 

The motors on my gimbal have three wires (like most gimbal servos I've seen) I assume they are +,- & signal. The connection seems too simple to me. Simply power them with a BEC and connect the signal wires to A10,11.

The thing that confuses me is that I was under the impression that a BEC gave an output of around 5.3 volts whereas my gimbal has a 12 volt connection.

Everything I've read says to just power the motors via a BEC but that seems weird to me...Am I missing something?

Thanks for any help!

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Replies

  • Clifford Sumner September 18, 2015 at 6:41pm
    I believe banggood just sells controllers as well, you might want to go do a search on their site. The manual that came with this was extremely basic.
    • Clifford Sumner > Clifford Sumner September 19, 2015 at 5:41pm
      Thanks for the replies fellas, yeah, I've had it working now for a while, just wanted to see if I could use the APM instead.

      I read that the pixhawk may be able to act as a controller eventually but that's purely anecdotal.

      Another point, you're replies have been incredibly encouraging. I first posted about the quad on another forum months ago, several times, never with a reply so I became discouraged. I think I've found a new home here :)

      So anyway, thanks again!
    • Darius Jack > Clifford Sumner September 19, 2015 at 1:11am

      Did you buy motors only, no controller coming with this kit ?

      Is IMU unit coming with controller's board or IMU data is fed from

      drone's IMU unit ?

      Controller's board is hidden in upper part.

      Greg:

      from your link

      "

      NEW Alexmos/BaseCam TINY boards at Flyduino

      Built-in IMU sensor

      Possibility to regulate current from 6 up to 11 V and connect small motors despite current of a battery

      "

      So current or voltage ?

      Meant current or voltage controlled motor ?

    • Greg Nuspel > Darius Jack September 19, 2015 at 5:56am

      The controllers regulate the current output. If you are just getting into these there is a lot of reading ahead of you. Brushless controllers are not a simple plug and play device. The control algorithms have to be tuned for your set up through the PID settings.

    • Darius Jack > Greg Nuspel September 19, 2015 at 3:23pm

      Exactly the case Greg,

      could you kindly request them to correct

      IS:

      Possibility to regulate current from 6 up to 11 V 

      SHOULD BE:

      Possibility to regulate current from 6 up to 11 A

       since you have provided the above web links to let other developers to avoid confusion  about current vs. voltage

  • Darius Jack September 18, 2015 at 12:39pm

    Hi Clifford, price is excellent. If this motor is 3-phase brushless so how can it replace step-motor's control functionality ?I have got 3-phase motor from LG washing machine (direct drive).
    Any manual is coming with this gimbal since I plan to use it for my heliostat, to move small solar cell to track the sun.
    Looking for 3-phase DC supplied controller .

    sorry, bug with reply. Empty reply is generated on click on Reply button and html tagged input window appears on clicking edit button assigned to empty message.

    • Darius Jack > Darius Jack September 18, 2015 at 1:49pm

      follow-up

      btw it looks like your gimbal is already offered with controller
      support is nice

      --
      Jeane Lin
      Sep 08,2015 05:44
      Would you please contact our customer service cservice@banggood.com

      follow discussions

      http://m.banggood.com/index.php?com=detail&t=showProductDiscuss...

      Jeane LinSep 03,2015 20:46
      It's suitable for DJI .If you want to use it in other quadcopter ,may be it need to add or change something

  • Clifford Sumner September 18, 2015 at 10:44am
    Ahhh, so no way to use the apm to control them then? That's a shame, I was really hoping to ditch this cheap controller.

    Thanks for the reply!
  • Greg Nuspel September 18, 2015 at 9:07am

    No those are brushless motors. They have 3 phases and need to be driven by a controller.

This reply was deleted.